Properties

Europium(III) chloride (EuCl₃), also known as europium trichloride, is a compound of europium and chlorine. It is a yellow solid which begins to decompose at or below the melting point^[1] to give at least some EuCl₂ . Being hygroscopic it rapidly absorbs water on exposure to moist air to form a white crystalline hexahydrate, EuCl₃.6H₂O. It is soluble in water, and (when anhydrous) it is expected to be also highly soluble in ethanol (by analogy with SmCl₃ ). It is nine-coordinate (trigonal prismatic)^[3], and it crystallises with the UCl₃ structure^[1].

CAS Registry No:[10025-76-0] (anhydrous); [13759-92-7] (hexahydrate).

Density: 4.89 g cm^-3(anhydrous) at 20 °C.

Molecular weight of 258.32 (anhydrous) or 366.41 (hexahydrate).

Preparation of anhydrous EuCl₃

Simple rapid heating of the hydrate alone may cause small amounts of hydrolysis ^[1]. Anhydrous EuCl₃ can be made from the hydrate by heating with an excess of thionyl chloride for around 15 hours^[1],[4].

Uses

Europium(III) chloride, can be used for the preparation of europium(II) chloride , by reduction in a gold boat using hydrogen gas while heating slowly to 700 °C^[1]. The anhydrous chloride may also be used to prepare organometallic compounds of europium, such as bis(pentamethylcyclopentadienyl)europium(II) complexes^[5],[6]. Europium(III) chloride can be used as a starting point for the preparation of other europium salts.

Suppliers

Alfa: http://www.alfa.com/alf/index.htm

GFS: http://www.gfschemicals.com/productcatalog/Rare_Earth_Compounds.asp

Aldrich: http://www.sigmaaldrich.com

Strem: http://www.strem.com/code/index.ghc

In the US, several of these suppliers also distribute through Fisher: https://www1.fishersci.com/index.jsp

or VWR: http://www.vwr.com/index.htm

References

1. F. T. Edelmann, P. Poremba, in: Synthetic Methods of Organometallic and Inorganic Chemistry, (W. A. Herrmann, ed.), Vol. 6, Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart, 1997.
2. CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (58th edition), CRC Press, West Palm Beach, Florida, 1977.
3. N. N. Greenwood, A. Earnshaw, Chemistry of the Elements, Pergamon Press, Oxford, UK, 1984.
4. J. H. Freeman, M. L. Smith, J. Inorg. Nucl. Chem. 7, 224 (1958).
5. T. D. Tilley et al., Inorg. Chem. 19, 2999 (1980); also see ref. 1, p57.
6. W. J. Evans, L. A. Hughes, T. P. Hanusa, Organometallics 5, 1285 (1986); also see ref. 1, p58.